At 9:16 AM -0600 8/24/01, Nelson Morales wrote:
>Four nights ago I was talking with some fellows and one of them said that
>the real meaning or intention of the word APISTON in this pasage is about
>'an unfaithful wife' ( meaning an affair) rather than 'a wife that believeth
>not' (Authorized Version).
>Some comments??

I'd say there's no question that APISTOS _can_ bear the sense "unfaithful"
in the sense of sexual infidelity (and there are some LXX instances where
it does seem to have that sense); nevertheless, the context here doesn't
seem to render the text nearly so intelligible with that understanding of
the word as it does if the word is understood to mean "unbelieving" =
"non-Christian." The deciding factor for Paul's advice that such a wife not
be divorced is the willingness (SUNEUDOKEI) of the woman in question to go
on living with her husband; if the woman is "unfaithful" in a sexual sense,
it would be more plausible that the deciding factor is the husbands
willingness to continue living with her.
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